Stylistic classification of the vocabulary.

To speak about stylistic classification of vocabulary it is necessary to speak about the notion of style. The term sty1e has many interpretations. I.V.Arnold gives a reference to The Oxford Dictionary which offers twenty-seven different meanings. Various Russian and foreign scholars, among them Michael Riffaterre, L.Bloomfield, I.R.Galperin, I.V.Arnold, N.M.Razinkina, Yu.S.Skrebnev gave different definitions of style and stylistics, each of them distinguishing this or that aspect as the main one.

The word “style” is derived from the Latin “stilus” which meant “a short stick for writing” (we can see the connection with the present meaning).

L. Bloomfield wrote, that “style is a selection of non-distinctive features of language”,while Seymour Chatman said, that “style is a product of individual choices and patterns of choices among linguistic possibilities”.

Werner Winter `s idea is that “a style may be said to form the inventory of optional features of the language”.

Some other scholars, e.g. Strevens, Halliday and others speak about registers, which are defined as a variety related to a particular use of the language, a particular subject of conversation. On the whole registers are narrower notions then styles. They may refer to more particular uses of the language. The term functional style refers to major varieties of language, e.g. the functional style of fiction, official documents etc.

There are various classifications of words.

Galperin writes, that the vocabulary of any language should be presented as a system, the elements of which are interconnected, interrelated but independent. He divided the whole word-stock into literary and colloquial, and distinguished 3 main levels or layers of words: the literary layer, the neutral layer and the colloquial layer. The literary and colloquial layers have subgroups each of which has a property common to all the subgroups within the layer. Arnold calls these common property of the group its aspect, e.g. the aspect of the literary layer is its bookish character; of the colloquial layer- its lively spoken character; of the neutral layer – its universal character. The last aspect means that neutral words are unrestricted in their use and can be used in all styles of language. It is the most stable layer of all.

The literary layer of words has no local or dialectal character.

The colloquial layer of words is limited to a definite language community or confined to a special locality.

The literary vocabulary consists of 6 groups of words: 1) common literary 2) terms and learned words 3) poetic words 4) archaic words 5) barbarisms and foreign words 6) literary coinages.

The colloquial vocabulary falls into 7 groups:1) common colloquial words 2)slang 3) jargonisms 4) professional words 5) dialectal words 6) vulgar words 7)colloquial coinages.

The common literary, neutral and common colloquial words from “ standard English vocabulary ”. Other groups are called special literary and special colloquial vocabulary. All this can be shown on the famous diagram suggested by I.R.Galperin.

Arnold suggests the following classification. There are 2 parts of the vocabulary: formal and informal.

The term formal English is used in cover those varieties of the English vocabulary that can be found in books and magazines, public speeches, radio and TV, in formal official talk.

Informal vocabulary is used in personal everyday communication

The stylistically formal part of the vocabulary, mostly used in written speech, is composed of special terminology, learned words common to all fields of knowledge, offi­cial vocabulary used in documentations and poetic diction including lofty words.

The informal part is traditionally subdivided into literary colloquial (cultivated speech), familiar colloquial, low colloquial (illiterate speech), folk speech (dialect) and slang.

Stylistically coloured words (not neutral words) are suitable only on certain occasions in specific spheres under specific condi­tions of communication. Dictionaries label them as colloquial, familiar, poetical, popular etc and the classification varies from dictionary to dictionary. e.g. horse, steed, gee-gee have the same denotational meaning as they all refer to the same animal but the stylistical colouring is different. Horse - stylistically neutral and may be used in any situation; steed - a poetic word; gee-gee - word natural in a child’s speech.

Terms belong to the special literary vocabulary, which is formal. Terminology constitutes the greatest part of every language vocabulary. It is its most intensely developing part. A term is any word or word-group used to name a notion characteristic of some speciefic field of knowledge, industry or culture.

An ideal term is monosemantic and when used within its own sphere, does not depend upon the context. It has no contextual meaning and no connotations are possible. The only meaning is a denotational free meaning. Its meaning remains constant until some new discovery or invention changes the referent or the notion.

A term obtains a figurative or emotionally coloured meaning only when used out of its sphere in literary or colloquial speech. But in that case it ceases to be a term, its denotational meaning may also become very vague and it turns into an ordinary word, e.g valency, to prescribe, synonymy.

According to I.V. Arnold, the origin of terms shows four main channels, two of which are spe­cific for terminology. These specific ways are:

1. The use of combining forms from Latin and Greek like aerodrome aerodynamics, microfilm, telegraph, thermonuclear, telemechanics, supersonic. The process is common to terminology in many languages.

2. Borrowing from another terminological system within the same language whenever there is any affinity between the respective fields, e.g. sea terminology lent many words to aviation vocabulary which later developed space terminology: cabin, captain, galley; terms of stylistics or semiotics came to lexicology- metaphor, trope.

The 3^rd and 4^th methods are word-formation (composition, semantic shift and derivation) and borrowing. Terminology has a tendency to become international. Special scientific organisationstry to improve terminology, besides, it is often possible to trace a term to its author.

In addition to terms, a scientific text usually may contain so-called learned words, such as approxi­mate, homogeneous, initial, miscellaneous. Such words are often of Latin or Greek origin, most of them are adjectives.

Learned words have their everyday synonyms, but they may be not precise. Another linguistic peculiarity of this group of words is the phenomenon which is called lexical suppletion (супплетивизм). A stylistically neutral noun of native origin is correated with a borrowed relative adjective e.g father - paternal, home – domestic..

Poeticizms

The idea of a special poetic style in English is contradictory. I.R.Galperin distinguishes it as a substyle of the belles-lettres style, I.V.Arnold opposes his opinion. In any case within the English vocabulary there is a set of words, traditionally used only in poetry and different from others because they have poetic connotations. Their usage was typical of the poetry of the past. These words are not only more lofty but also as a rule more abstract in their denota­tive meaning than their neutral synonyms. E.g. brow -forehead; gore -blood; steed -horse. Sometimes not the word as a whole is poetic but one of its variants. It may be semantic: e.g. the words fair (прекрасный), flood( поток) have a poetical meaning, it may be also a phonetical variant: morn - morning; oft - often.

Colloquial words

The term colloquial is quite old. It was used by S. Johnson, the great English lexicographer. But he didn`t approve of it. S.Johnson thought colloquial words inconsistent with good usage and ad­vised “to clear English from colloquial barbarisms”.

Today colloquial does not nec­essarily mean ‘slangy’ or ‘vulgar’. L iterary colloquial is the vocabu­lary used by educated people in ordinary conversation or written communication with intimate friends. Familiar (special)colloquial words are more emotional and care­less than literary colloquial. Low colloquial is a term used for illiterate popular speech. It is very difficult to establish the boundary between these 3 types of colloquial language.

Colloquial speech is characterized by such features as 1 )substantivized adjectives: e.g. constitutional -walk, daily -woman who comes daily to help with the household chores. 2) formations from phrasal verbs: carry-on - way of behaving, let-down - an unexpected disap­pointment, make-up - cosmetics, break-through- solution to the problem; 3) compounds coined by back-formation: to baby-sit - from baby-sitter. 4) lexical intensifiers and words easily acquiring new meanings and valency. E.g. to do a museum. 5) lexical expressions of modality. E.g. definitely; up to a point, in a way, exactly.

Slang.

Within colloquial vocabulary there are layers which should be discussed: slang, argot, cant, jargon. They should be distinguished from dialects as they have only lexical peculiarities and grammar formation. Argot should be distinguished from slang: the first term serves to denote a special vocabulary, used by a particular social or age group, especially the so-called underworld (the criminal circles). Its main point is to be unintelligible to outsiders. Cant is conversational words used by members of particular occupation. Jargon is a technical vocabulary of a professional subgroup.

There is no exact definition of slang. The subject of slang has been discussed for many years and very different opinions of its nature, its boundaries and the attitude towards it have been expressed. The best-known English lexicographer and scholar who studied slang was E. Partridge.

Slang words are identified and distinguished by contrasting them to standard literary vocabulary. They are expressive, mostly ironical words serving to create fresh names for some things that are frequent topics of discourse. Sometimes they sound vulgar, cynical and harsh, e.g. vivid examples are slang words for money: beans, brass, dough - mone y; saucers - eyes ; to leg -to walk.The lexical meaning of a slang word contains not only the denotational component but also different types of connotation.

Many scholars consider that slang after it has been used in speech for a certain period of time, comes to just colloquial or even literary vocabulary, e.g. bet, shabby, sham, snob, trip. The bulk of slang is formed by short-lived words.They may denote a new and notion and enrich the vocabulary or make addition to a cluster of synonyms.

Slang words can be classified into general slang and special slang. General slang includes words that are not specific for any social or pro­fessional group, special slang is peculiar for some such group: teenager slang, university slang, public school slang, Air Force slang, football slang, sea slang. etc. Some authors consider argot, cant, jargon to belong here. I.V.Arnold contradicts this idea saying that essential difference between them is in the fact that slang has an expressive function, but the other gropus aim secrecy. Slang words are clearly motivated, e.g. cradle-snatcher - an old man who marries or courts a much younger woman. Argot words on the contrary do not show their motivation, e.g. book -a life sentence.

Another group within the colloquial layer is professional words which are sometimes also considered within slang or jargons. Professional words should not be confused with terms. When the word is the only name for some special notion it belongs to terminology. If it is a jocular name for something that can be described in a different way, it is a professional word. Terms are literary words and can be understood by anybody while professional words are colloquial and belong to some professional community and may not be understood by other people, e.g. tinfish - submarine; piper - a person, who decorates cakes.

There are cases when professional words pass on into general slang, e.g. the expression to be on the beam was first used by pilots about the beam of the radio beacon indicating the proper course for the aircraft to follow. Now figuratively to be on the beam means ‘to be right’, to be off the beam means ‘to be wrong’ or ‘to be at a loss’.

A great deal of slang comes from the USA, but slang is not always American in its origin.